Location: Sugarcane Field Station
Project Number: 6030-21000-007-036-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 31, 2020
End Date: Aug 30, 2025
Objective:
1. Determine sugarcane parental clones with specific agronomic and disease reaction traits.
2. Develop database of the parental plants and expand the parental pool for diversity to assist the Canal Point (CP) sugarcane breeding program.
Approach:
For Objective 1, the CP program routinely has 1500 sugarcane genotypes that are kept in nursery fields, greenhouses, and outside pots for potential use for crosses. These clones need to be updated for addition and for deletion annually, based on their agronomic performance, flowering habitat, and disease resistance. These genotypes have been collected from national and international levels. The detailed phenotypic traits of these parental clones are important for breeders to make decision of crossing combinations and to develop F1 diversity. These traits will be determined and recorded from nursery fields and from potted plants at Canal Point.
For Objective 2, the PIs from UF and from ARS will work closely to establish and develop the database of the parental plants based on data collected in Objective 1; to assist in maintaining can line nursery plants for designing crosses, to help crosses and to organize fuzz. Efforts are still required to synchronize the flowering of individual varieties, and to create optimal conditions by adjusting micro environment conditions for flower development, pollination, and seed maturation. These include the use of photoperiod houses, delay lights, temperature control in photoperiod houses, drip irrigation systems, and a heated crossing house with a misting system.
